The invention relates to a sheet metal forming machine, comprising a machine frame, a first roller tool mounted on the machine frame for rotation about a first roller axis, a second roller tool which is rotatable about a second roller axis and interacts with the first roller tool and which is mounted for rotation in a feed bearing which, for its part, can be moved and fixed in position in relation to the machine frame transversely to the first roller axis by means of a feed drive so that a feed position of the second roller tool relative to the first roller tool can be adjusted, and a roller drive for at least one of the roller axes.
Sheet metal forming machines of this type are known from the state of the art; in these cases, a manual actuation of the feed drive and a manual adjustment of the roller drive are, for example, provided.
An object underlying the invention is therefore to improve a sheet metal forming machine of the generic type in such a manner that this can be operated as simply as possible.
A further object underlying the invention is therefore to improve a sheet metal forming machine in such a manner that the top end section can be designed more advantageously and more simply from a constructional point of view.
This object is accomplished in accordance with the invention, in a sheet metal forming machine of the type described at the outset, in that the feed drive is designed as a feed drive which can be controlled as to its position by a control and by means of which the second roller tool can be moved into feed positions which are predeterminable in a defined manner, that the roller drive is designed as a controllable roller drive and that roller axis positions of the roller axes can be recorded and roller axis positions and feed positions linked to one another by the control.
The advantage of the inventive solution is to be seen in the fact that with it a simplified operation of the sheet metal forming machine is possible since the advancing of the second roller tool towards the first roller tool can be brought about by the control due to the linking of feed positions and roller axis positions.
In this respect, the linking of roller axis positions and feed positions can be brought about, in principle, in any optional manner, for example, in the manner such as that known for numerically controlled machines.
A particularly advantageous and simple solution for the operation of such a sheet metal forming machine provides for the control to allocate feed positions to the roller axis positions and store these in a memory as sets of data.
Such an allocation of feed positions to roller axis positions makes it possible in a simple manner, when approaching the individual roller axis positions, to have the feed positions associated with them approached in a manner automatically controlled by the control.
With respect to the design of the memory, it is particularly advantageous when the memory stores sets of data for at least one forming cycle of a workpiece.
It is, however, also conceivable to design the memory such that this is in a position to store several different forming cycles for different workpieces and creates the possibility of calling up the forming cycle suitable for the respective workpiece to be formed.
With respect to the manner in which the sets of data are recorded by the control, the most varied of possibilities are conceivable. It is, for example, conceivable to specify the sets of data to the control via numerical data and have these stored in the memory by the control.
Another possibility is to determine the sets of data via a computer simulation and have these stored in the memory by the control.
A particularly favorable and, above all, simple solution for the user of the sheet metal forming machine provides for the control to record an allocation of feed positions to roller axis positions in a learning mode.
In such a learning mode, actual roller axis positions and feed positions could, for example, be specifiable to the control and then be recordable as a result by the control in the learning mode.
A particularly convenient and, in particular, user-friendly solution provides for the sets of data to be recordable by the control during the course of a manually controlled forming cycle actually carried out on a workpiece with the sheet metal forming machine.
This solution has the advantage that the user of the sheet metal forming machine can form a first workpiece conventionally by way of manual adjustment of the roller axis positions and the feed positions and, at the same time, can store the association of feed positions and roller axis positions during the forming of the workpiece via the learning mode so that during subsequent formings of workpieces of the same type the forming can then be carried out in a controlled a manner by the control.
A particularly advantageous solution provides for a controlled forming of a workpiece to be carried out with the control in a forming mode, during which the control, by reading the stored data, automatically realizes the stored allocation of the feed positions to the roller axis positions by activating the feed drive.
With respect to the specification of the roller axis movement, the most varied of possibilities are conceivable. It would, for example, be conceivable in a convenient solution to also have the roller axis movement carried out in a manner automatically controlled by the control, wherein, in this case, data concerning the course of the roller axis movement during the forming cycle must also be specified to the control.
It has, however, proven to be particularly expedient, in particular, with respect to a simple operability of the sheet metal forming machine, when the maximum speed of the roller axis movement in the forming mode can be predetermined manually during the forming.
This means that the user of the sheet metal forming machine always has the possibility of stopping it, for example, when he recognizes problems during the machining of the workpiece.
Furthermore, the user can predetermine the maximum speed in a simple manner, observe the machining of the workpiece and can thus always control the forming process visually while the control automatically allocates the feed positions to the individual roller axis positions.
In order to exclude, during the manual specification of the maximum speed, unsuitable forming processes which can, for example, result due to the fact that the specified maximum speed of the roller axis movement impairs the precision of the forming, it is provided for the control to have a speed limiting mode, in which with the control in the forming mode the maximum possible speed of the roller axis movement can be adjusted so as to deviate from the manually predeterminable speed of the roller axis movement.
This means that in the speed limiting mode the control can automatically and actively influence the roller axis movement and reduce the speed of the roller axis movement.
The transfer into such a speed limiting mode can, for example, always take place when a feed movement is intended to be brought about by the feed drive.
A particularly advantageous form of realization of such a speed limiting mode provides for the control to adapt the maximum possible speed of the roller axis movement to the maximum possible speed of the feed movement such that the association of feed position and roller axis position is maintained.
In conjunction with the preceding explanations concerning the individual embodiments of the inventive sheet metal forming machine, it has not been specified in greater detail to what extent information exceeding the allocation of feed positions to roller axis positions is stored by the control. It has, in this respect, proven to be particularly advantageous when information concerning the roller axis movement can be stored with the control.
In this respect, it is particularly favorable when the information concerning the roller axis movement is allocated to the roller axis positions.
The allocation could, for example, be brought about by means of separate sets of data, with which the information concerning the roller axis movement is allocated to the roller axis positions.
A particularly favorable solution does, however, provide for the information concerning roller axis movements to be co-recorded in the sets of data comprising the roller axis positions and the feed positions.
With respect to the information to be recorded concerning the roller axis movement, the most varied of possibilities are conceivable. It is particularly advantageous when at least information concerning the direction of movement of the roller axis movement is stored as information concerning the roller axis movements.
It is, however, also conceivable to store speed information or acceleration information as information concerning the roller axis movement.
During the storing of information concerning the roller axis movement it is likewise advantageous when the control transfers into the speed limiting mode when a change in the direction of movement of the roller axis movement is intended to take place.
A particularly favorable embodiment provides for the control, in the speed limiting mode, to reduce the speed of the roller axis movement to zero in accordance with a predetermined course during a change in the direction of movement of the roller axis movement and subsequently to increase it again in the reverse direction in accordance with a predetermined course.
In order for the control to be in a position to be able to carry out the necessary activations as promptly as possible, it is provided in a particularly favorable solution for the control to record the information associated with future roller axis positions proceeding from the current roller axis position.
The control operates particularly expediently when it transfers into the speed limiting mode on account of information associated with future roller axis positions and thus already adapts the speed of the roller axis movement, so-to-speak xe2x80x9cin advancexe2x80x9d, in accordance with the adjustments to be carried out in the future.
With respect to the design of the sheet metal forming machine, no further details have been given in conjunction with the preceding explanations concerning the individual embodiments. One particularly advantageous embodiment of the inventive sheet metal forming machine provides, for example, for the machine frame to have a column with a top end section arranged on it, for the first roller tool to be mounted in the top end section so as to be rotatable about the first roller axis and for the feed bearing for the second roller tool to be arranged in the top end section.
Such a sheet metal forming machine is preferably designed as a so-called seam-rolling machine.
With a seam-rolling machine of this type, the feed drive is normally arranged on a projection of the top end section and so the projection of the top end section has to be sufficiently stable in order to, in particular, bear the feed drive and absorb the necessary forces.
In accordance with the further object of the invention, in a sheet metal forming machine comprising a machine frame, a first roller tool mounted on the machine frame for rotation about a first roller axis, a second roller tool which is rotatable about a second roller axis and interacts with the first roller tool and which is mounted for rotation in a feed bearing which, for its part, can be moved and fixed in position in relation to the machine frame transversely to the first roller axis by means of a feed drive so that a feed position of the second roller tool relative to the first roller tool can be adjusted, and a roller drive for at least one of the roller axes, in that the machine frame has a column with a top end section arranged on it, that the first roller tool is mounted in the top end section as so to be rotatable about the first roller axis and the feed bearing for the second roller tool is arranged in the top end section, that the feed bearing is mounted on an end area facing the roller tools of an arm extending in the top end section and that the feed drive is arranged on the machine frame outside a projection of the top end section and acts on the arm.
It is possible with this solution for the projection of the top end section to no longer need to bear the feed drive and thus lesser requirements as to stability need to be met by it.
Moreover, the arm for the movement of the feed bearing also creates the possibility of absorbing the forces necessary for the advancing of the feed bearing essentially outside the projection of the top end section via the machine frame.
A particularly favorable solution provides, in this respect, for the arm to be part of a lever gearing which can be driven by the feed drive and creates a particularly favorable possibility from a constructional point of view of transferring the forces acting on the feed bearing to the machine frame outside the projection.
In this respect, it is particularly favorable when the lever gearing is mounted on the machine frame via a bearing axle which is arranged at a distance from the roller tools.
In this respect, it is particularly favorable when the bearing axle is arranged outside the projection of the top end section.
In this respect, it is particularly favorable when the bearing axle is arranged in an area of the machine frame facing away from the roller tools.
A particularly favorable arrangement of the bearing axle provides for this to be arranged in the base of the top end section so that the pulling forces transferred to the machine frame from the bearing axle act in an area of the top end section supported by the column, namely the base, and thus a simple stabilization of the mounting of the bearing axle relative to the column is possible.
A particularly favorable design of the lever gearing provides for this to comprise a second arm, on which the feed drive acts.
The second arm of the lever gearing can, in principle, extend in any optional direction. In order to obtain as compact a type of construction as possible of the inventive sheet metal forming machine, it is preferably provided for the second arm to extend in the direction of the column.
This type of design of the lever gearing creates the possibility of locating the actuation of the lever gearing in the area of the column and thus in an area of the sheet metal forming machine which can easily be provided with great stability.
A particularly favorable design of the inventive sheet metal forming machine provides for the feed drive to act on the arm via a reduction gear. This solution has the advantage that sufficiently large forces for the movement of the feed bearing can already be generated with a low driving power and so it is possible, in particular, to use an electric motor.
The reduction gear can be designed in the most varied of ways. One possibility would be to design the reduction gear as a conventional toothed-wheel gearing. It is, however, particularly favorable, especially in order to apply large forces, when the reduction gear comprises a wedge gear.
Such a wedge gear can, for example, be a spindle gearing or an eccentric gear. A particularly favorable solution provides, however, for the wedge gear to be a cam gear.
Such a cam gear may be realized with particularly simple means from a constructional point of view when the cam gear has a cam disk which acts on a cam follower arranged on the lever gearing.
In this respect, the cam gear is preferably designed such that the cam disk acts on the cam follower in the sense of advancing the second roller tool towards the first roller tool so that the cam gear can generate the large force required for advancing the second roller tool towards the first roller tool.
In order, in addition, to have the possibility of being able to move the second roller tool away from the first roller tool, it is preferably provided for the lever gearing to have an elastic biasing means which acts on the first arm in the sense of a movement of the second roller tool in relation to the first roller tool in the opposite direction to the direction of feed.
The lever gearing can, in principle, be optionally complex, wherein the first arm is arranged on the one hand and the second arm on the other hand. A particularly simple, constructional solution provides for the lever gearing to comprise an angle lever which forms the first arm and the second arm and extends with the first arm in the top end section and with the second arm in the column.
Additional features and advantages of the invention are the subject matter of the following description as well as the drawings illustrating one embodiment.